


Preference

by LadyM_17



Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
Genre: Boundaries, Brother Feels, Episode Tag: S03E13-14 You Posted What?!?, Protective Chase Davenport
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28166739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyM_17/pseuds/LadyM_17
Summary: Chase wished he was handling being thrust into their school's spotlight as well as Adam was... except Adam isn't handling it well at all.
Relationships: Adam Davenport & Chase Davenport
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Preference

**Author's Note:**

  * For [broadway_hufflepuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/broadway_hufflepuff/gifts).



> Requested by broadway_hufflepuff (lovely name btw): if you're ever bored- I'd love to read a fic about how chase is angry that Adam can handle everything, but he soon realizes that Adam isn't as okay as he seems?
> 
> I hope this fulfilled your expectations! I tried my best!
> 
> Content Warnings: None, I think. If you think something should be included please let me know!

Chase leaned against his locker with a huff, Adam was taking forever and he couldn’t leave until Adam decided to. Well, he could drive off without Adam but then Mr. Davenport would get on his case about it and Chase really didn’t need that right now. Nor did Mr. Davenport for that matter, dealing with the press and the government after their bionics had been revealed.

The bionic reveal that had been the catalyst for Adam’s habitual tardiness. Adam was never this late before the reveal, well, that wasn’t true, Adam had been late before, but for reasons like he had gotten distracted with the combination lock or the water fountain or a balloon, and Chase would come to find him and drag him away from the object of his attention so they could go home. What distracted Adam now wasn’t a water fountain but a group of people around it, and then a group of people at his locker, and probably a group of people in between him and Chase- so many people that Chase couldn’t just drag him away, so they could go home.

The attention had been an adjustment after the reveal. It wasn’t like any of them were exactly invisible before it had happened, their first couple of weeks of school had been very eventful with Spike and Principal Perry’s strange tournaments, but now it was on another level. Earlier, maybe there would be some stares and some whispers especially in the days immediately after something eventful had taken place, but no one approached them about it, no one tried to be their friends after it- if anything, they’d try to avoid them, but now it was different, people didn’t avoid them now. People would approach Chase, sometimes making small talk hoping whatever they said would somehow make an impression on him, sometimes asking him questions, or just asking him to hang out. It was exhausting and ridiculous, half the time people were talking to him now, he was just focusing on keeping Spike from snapping- not that he hadn’t considered letting him, at least then people would leave him alone, but the amount of press that it would take to clear that up alone stopped him.

Adam seemed to be having no such problems, to Chase’s bewilderment, he was going with it, like a puppy accepting all the new friends, bending and breaking people’s random objects when requested, all with that same stupid grin on his face. Just watching him made Chase want to slam his head into a locker, he was exhausted, he wanted to leave, and he couldn’t because Adam had too many friends.

By the time the clock hit 3:40 and Adam still hadn’t shown up, Chase had sunk to the floor and pulled out some homework. It wouldn’t take him long but he might as well get it done because it wasn’t like there was anything better to do.

“What’re you doing down there, Chasey?” Chase glanced up to see Adam stooping over him with a group of people lingering few feet away- he must’ve just said goodbye.

“Waiting for you.” Chase slammed his book shut.

Adam obviously didn’t pick up on Chase’s tone. “On the floor?” he asked.

“I was doing homework.”

“Now?” Adam frowned and pulled Chase up. “Why?”

“Because you were taking too long.”

Adam laughed. “You’re just jealous because you don’t have any friends.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Sure. Can we please just go, now?”

“Not until you admit you’re jealous,” Adam sing-songed.

Chase glanced over to where Adam’s group of friends was still standing within earshot. They certainly didn’t need any ideas that Chase wanted any friends. “I’m not,” he spat and walked towards the car, hoping Adam would follow him.

Adam did follow him, laughing and joking even as Chase drove home in silence. He really, really, just wanted some peace and quiet. Somehow high school had moved from a place of learning and observation to a test of how long he could go without snapping at a civilian because everyone was being too friendly, and he was reaching his limits, even if Adam wasn’t.

“You wanna play video games?” Adam asked as he tossed his jacket on the couch.

“No,” Chase snapped, moving through the house to get anywhere people weren’t.He ignored whatever Adam said next, escaping into the bathroom. He didn’t have to go, but no one was going to bug him while he was in here for at least a good few minutes. He could breathe, now.

Maybe Adam was thriving in this new environment of constant scrutiny and popularity but Chase… he wished he was, but he wasn’t. He wanted to be, he had to be— he was the team leader, but he couldn’t. Whatever example he was setting it certainly wasn’t one the others should be following, and they weren’t. Chase was the only one struggling:

Leo had faded back into obscurity relatively quick, Bree had always been social—the only one of them to have friends outside their family, and Adam had adjusted. It was just Chase who was struggling, he was supposed to be setting an example and he couldn’t.

Eventually, Chase went down to the lab, hoping Adam would still be playing video games. Bree had said something about going to the mall and Leo was hanging out with Janelle, so it should’ve been empty, Chase should’ve been able to sit in silence and do his homework or run through some experiments that he’d been planing— should’ve being the operative word since just as Chase stepped out of the elevator he had to duck to avoid a flying phone, Adam’s phone.

Immediately he was on guard, because either someone was attacking Adam or Adam was being stupid in the lab, either way, a dangerous situation which meant he wasn’t getting his alone time and might be stuck with a hurt brother, which he never wanted to deal with and especially not right now.

Instead of seeing a hostile in the lab or Adam messing with a piece of equipment he certainly should not be near, however, Chase spotted Adam was gripping a table so hard he was denting it, despite the table having been designed to withstand Adam’s force.

There was no threat and then the phone, miraculously still alive, beeped, and Adam whirled around, only to jump when he saw Chase.

“Hey, Adam, you doing alright?” Adam did not look alright, his eyes were slightly red and Chase didn’t know what to do with that information because Adam and crying just… didn’t compute.

“Yeah, Chasey, I’m,” the phone beeped again and Adam groaned as if pained. “Just great.”

Chase picked up the phone and turned off its ringer. “Better?” He asked.

“No,” Adam snapped. “Not better, because it still buzzes, it goes buzz, buzz, buzz, like a bumblebee and usually I love bees but this is a really, really, annoying bee!”

Chase turned the phone off.

“Okay, well, now, I don’t know what people are saying!” Adam argued.

Chase put the phone on the desk. “You’ll survive, let’s go play video games or something.”

“But you don’t want to play video games.”

“I don’t, but you obviously need to and I’m the only one in the house.” Chase nodded for Adam to lead the way, and he did after shooting another glance at his phone.

Chase waited a few minutes for the game to load before asking. “So what had you so fired up?”

Adam shrugged. “Nothing.”

“You destroyed a table.” Chase pointed out.

“I destroy a lot of things.”

Chase frowned. “Not usually so… needlessly.” Well, usually Adam broke things needlessly, in Chase’s mind, but Adam seemed to think he had a reason, some hair brained experiment or prank.

“The phone wouldn’t shut up.” Adam’s grip tightened on his controller.

Chase moved his character around the screen, waiting for Adam to elaborate, eventually, he did.

“I’m just so tired of them, dude, I mean they’re great and all but they won’t leave me alone.”

“Your friends?”

“I guess friends, I mean I don’t know half their names, if I’m honest.” Adam glanced at Chase. “I’m sure you do.”

Chase gave a huff of laughter because it was true. “Only because my bionics lend themselves to memorization. If learning names required crushing things I’m sure you would exceed.”

Adam groaned. “And they keep asking me to crush things! What is it with them and crushed metal! You see one piece of it, you’ve seen them all.”

"Adam, you don’t have to keep crushing things for them if you don’t want to or hanging out with them.” Chase had assumed Adam knew this, but Adam’s shock suggested otherwise.

“I can?”

“Yes, of course, you’re not telling me you didn’t know this!”

“Well, Bree hangs out with everyone who asks!”

“Well she wants to, if you don’t, you don’t have to, I don’t.”

“People ask to hang out with you?”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Yes, they do and I don’t like hanging out with them, so I don’t.”

“But how?” Adam asked.

"How what?"

"How do you not?"

“You just don’t Adam: if someone asks you to crush something, you say no; if someone you don’t want to talk to, find a way to politely excuse youself, and if that doesn’t work excuse yourself clearly. That’s what I do.”

“But you make it sound so easy.”

“It’s not,” Chase admitted. “But it takes practice, like your push-ups.”

“Push-ups are easy, dealing with people is hard.”

“They’re both hard,” Chase said, “You’ve practiced one, now you can practice the other.”

Adam groaned.

* * *

Despite Adam’s hesitance, Chase did see him practicing— well, at first he heard about it.

“I asked Adam to crush this can I found earlier.” Chase paused as he was rounding the corner.

“It’s not crushed?”

“Yeah, he said he didn’t feel like it, whatever that means.”

Chase snorted. “It means he didn’t feel like it and he doesn’t owe you anything.”

The two students jumped as Chase rounded the corner. “Oh, hey Chase, we were wondering if you wanted to sit with us during lunch?”

Apparently, they were skipping right past the topic of Adam, alright. “No, I’ve got plans.” And Chase kept walking.

Adam started showing up earlier after school, never on time, it was still Adam, after all, but earlier. A few days later, he joined Chase and Leo for lunch.

“Not too busy with your new friends?” Leo snarked. He’d noticed Adam’s absence too.

“Nah,” Adam said, “I prefer you guys.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
